​Months after the most severe Ebola outbreak ever began to claim lives overseas, the response underway now in the United States to the first diagnosed case of the disease occur in the US is under attack.

Thomas Eric Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian citizen, became the
first person to be diagnosed in the US with
the potentially lethal disease during the last week, and efforts
to prevent, contain and control a potential catastrophe have been
bungled, by and large.

Local authorities right away came under fire for not diagnosing
Duncan any earlier. Quickly it was revealed that he entered a
Dallas, Texas hospital on September 25 with a fever and abdominal
pain. Despite telling hospital personnel that he had returned
from Liberia four days earlier, Duncan was sent home with
antibiotics; three days later, Duncan was taken to the Texas
Health Presbyterian Hospital in an ambulance and officially diagnosed by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention two days later on September 30.

“[E]ven a single case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States
raises concerns. Knowing the possibility exists, medical and
public health professionals across the country have been
preparing to respond,” the health office said then. “CDC
and public health officials in Texas are taking precautions to
identify people who have had close personal contact with the ill
person and health care professionals have been reminded to use
meticulous infection control at all times.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry, a former presidential hopeful during the
2012 race, was also quick to tout the Lone Star State’s ability
to control a potential epidemic by saying “Few places in the
world are better equipped” to handle Ebola during a press
conference on Wednesday this week. Texas Department of State
Health Services Commission Dr. David Lakey said during the same
event that chances of the disease spreading are “very, very,
very small.”

Nevertheless, efforts in Dallas to keep Duncan quarantined have
been called into question as new information surfaces about how
authorities are handling a potential outbreak. A Dallas paramedic
on Thursday claimed that the ambulance that took Duncan to the
hospital on September 28 was not taken out of commission until
two days later, according to a reporter at Breitbart, and the New York Times reported that same day that
state and local authorities were confirming only then that
Duncan’s apartment had yet to be sanitized.

A cleaning crew equipped to control Duncan’s residence were
expected to act on Friday, but already it appears as if they had
been too late: county officials visited the Dallas apartment
without protection on Wednesday, the Times reported, and placed
themselves in the same closed quarters as sweat-stained sheets
and dirty towels used by Duncan while ill.

“The failure to sanitize his sheets and towels also revealed
a broader problem in handling materials possible infected with
the virus,” Kevin Sack and Manny Fernandez wrote for the
Times. “Hospitals say they face a major challenge disposing
of waste generated in the care of Ebola patients because two
federal agencies have issued conflicting guidance on what they
should do. As a result, hospitals say, waste may pile up and they
cannot get rid of it.”

Information has also surfaced regarding the severity of what
authorities in Dallas are facing with Duncan. On Wednesday, the
New York Times reported that the man had direct contact last month with two people in
Monrovia, the Liberian capital, who soon after died from Ebola.

Weighing in with reporters who wanted to know how Duncan had been
discharged from a hospital two days before being diagnosed with
Ebola, Lakey, the state health commission, said this week that
officials were investigating a breakdown in communication.

“Unfortunately, connections weren't made related to travel
history and symptoms," he said during a presser on Thursday,
CNN reported. “I don't have that final
analysis right now. … We're still investigating how the
information fell through the cracks."

Now as fears of an outbreak are raised further following news
that a cameraman for NBC News contracted Ebola in West
Africa and was being moved to the US on Friday for aid, officials
say they’re stepping up their response.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we're starting with this
very wide net, including people who have had even brief
encounters with the patient or the patient's home," Texas
Department of State Health Services spokeswoman Carrie Williams
said Thursday. "The number will drop as we focus in on those
whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection."

Officials have since began interviewing people who may have come
into contact with Duncan during the last few weeks, and four
members of a household with whom he had stayed with were confined
to their Dallas apartment on Thursday as a precaution.

On Friday, a hospital in Washington, DC — more than 1,000 away
from Dallas — confirmed that they were treating a patient
with Ebola-like symptoms.